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Home » Audio » General » Attracting Non-Audiophiles To High End Audio
| Re: Attracting Non-Audiophiles To High End Audio [message #60629 is a reply to message #60559] |
Wed, 19 August 2009 04:10   |
PR Audio
Messages: 23
Registered: July 2009
Location: Southern IL / Western KY
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Chancellor |
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| Bob Brines wrote on Sun, 09 August 2009 08:00 |
4. Americans are driven by price. Quality is irrelevant. Given the choice between quality and price, the average consumer will choose price every time.
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Bob, in general I agree with you, but, I don't entirely agree with you on point 4. Toyota and Honda did very well for quite some time by emphasizing quality at a moderate price, NOT the lowest price around. Their Korean competitors started doing better once they, in turn, were able to improve their quality to the point that they didn't kill themselves by offering much longer warranties.
Conversely, based on price and economy, the Ford Focus should be a smash sales success, but, it's reputation for poor quality drove a lot of people away from it. (Including me - I bought a used Mazda MX-3 GS many years ago, and a used Toyota Matrix more recently, over a new Focus, and for higher prices to boot.)
Ok, I may be "weird", but are there more Focus's out there than Accords or Corrolas / Corrola based vehicles?
Come visit!
www.praudio.com/site/
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| Re: Attracting Non-Audiophiles To High End Audio [message #60635 is a reply to message #60634] |
Thu, 20 August 2009 20:19 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18796
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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I suspect that demographics are responsible to a large degree. Seems to me the largest group of people that are really into music are teenagers and twenty-somethings. That's not to say some of us older guys aren't as into music as they are, but I do think many people stop listening to music regularly when they get older. It becomes less a part of many people's lives as they become adults.
Think about it - Almost everyone listens to music a lot in their youth and they make it a big part of their lives. But as they age, many people get busy, start to listen more to the news and current events, and rarely turn on the sound system unless its tied to their home theater. Once you've brought a couple of rug rats into the home, it gets harder to spend an hour of undivided attention to your favorite album.
When you were a kid, you could stay in your room for hours listening to music. You probably had your first kiss at a school dance - listening to music. You went everywhere with the stereo in your car going, knew all the current songs. We sometimes get sick of the kids with their stereos blasting in traffic, but hey, they're still enjoying music.
To be honest, I don't think I see the "hifi downturn" as much as maybe some other people do. I was always interested in making speakers inexpensive, and I think that keeps me plugged in to the youth market, especially the younger DIYers. At least some of my products appeal to this demographic.
At first, having inexpensive but high-quality speakers was a necessity because I was one of those kids wanting the best but having little spending money. Then later, as my disposable income grew, I was able to make more price-no-object designs. But even they are inexpensive compared to some audiophile offerings.
Most of the people I deal with buy kits, and while not recession proof, that's exactly the kind of product people buy when they are trying to save money. DIY seems to be counter-cyclic with respect to economic downturns, so when the economy gets weaker, DIY products seem to sell more. As a result, I almost never see any real change that I can pin on a downturn in hifi or even in the economy. It's a steady stream to me, with most of my builders being the same sort of person that would do their own car tune-ups or put in their own kitchen tile. They often want to pinch a penny but they also want it "right", and they think "if you want it right, you have to do it yourself."
I think that brings us back full circle, right back to where Fred was when he started this thread. 
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| Re: Attracting Non-Audiophiles To High End Audio [message #60690 is a reply to message #60689] |
Thu, 27 August 2009 13:41 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18796
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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That's a weird deal, but I know lots of musicians like that. Never understood it really, but I think to them it's more about the content than about the quality, in a manner of speaking. They sort of hear through the media, if you know what I mean. They can listen through a distorted amp and buzzing speaker and get just as much as they would through a better system.
I think most people are more quality sensitive than that. If they hear good sound, they can easily identify it as being better, and they prefer it. But if they never get a chance to hear really good quality sound systems, they don't know what they're missing. And then there's the money factor too, maybe more a bang-for-the-buck metric.
I think lots of people would rather listen to their favorite music through a $500 to $1000 system like Fred is talking about, or the one you put together for your friend, than they would listen to an iPod or Best Buy micro-satellite system. The quality difference is striking, noticed immediately. Move up to a $5000 to $10,000 system, and I think most would prefer that to the $1K system. The quality difference is still pretty apparent, you can hear the clarity difference right away (if the components chosen are truly higher quality, of course). Some people will balk at the price tag though, and may be quite happy with the less expensive system. On to the $10K+ systems, you'll really lose a lot of people on the price, and especially since the sound quality improvement, while there, isn't as noticeable. The most expensive systems look expensive, but you reach a point of diminishing returns regarding sound quality, so not as many people buy them.
I guess it's like anything else, really. Same deal with cars. Most are in small, economical or midsize, mid-price cars. Fewer people drive expensive cars, even though most are clearly better in terms of performance or comfort or both. And then, some people don't even want to own a car. It isn't always economic either, some people just rather not drive, prefering public transportation or cabs. That's another thing I never figured out, 'cause I love to drive. But people from other cultures don't drive as much, so when they're here, they'd rather not drive even if they can afford a car. Different strokes for different folks.
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| Re: Attracting Non-Audiophiles To High End Audio [message #60691 is a reply to message #60690] |
Thu, 27 August 2009 15:34 |
Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009
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Illuminati (3rd Degree) |
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Being a musician and someone who appreciates good quality sound (I know, I'm unusual), I guess I'll throw a few comments in the hat from a guitarists point of view. These are only my opinions as an electric guitarist and not everyone thinks as I do.
Most musicians I know like a good sound, but their perception of good sound in a live setting is different from an audiophile as Wayne said. They want that good sound an audiophile likes in the final mix most of the time, but rarely get it. I look for "tone", not necessarily balanced sound across the board. We fiddle with all the tone controls depending on the songs we like to play. A big, chunky low end for metal--with slightly scooped mids--and a ripping high end with lots of presence. A smooth low end, with more mid, and a rolled off treble for a lot of blues (ala Clapton or Eric Johnson). We change the sound with a multitude of effects after all that a lot of times because we can and it adds to the total viceral effect of the song. Imagine AC/DC played through a straight clean channel with every control set down the middle--I've done it and it bites! Each instrument in the band is done in some fashion like this. Even acoustic players do this to some degree, although they rely on the guitar itself to produce the "tone" they're looking for. In the end an engineer balances all these to make a nice homogenous sound, well some do anyway--then they compress the hell out of it.
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